The Euro Crisis is the main tool used by the Eurocratic elite to force Europe’s Nations into debt slavery and Technocratic Authoritarianism. But at the same time many of Europe’s regions are looking for more autonomy.
The Bankers need a new Big War to bludgeon the Nations into Supranational submission.
Scotland is a case in point. Having suffered English domination for centuries, it is not content with Tony Blair’s devolution, but is moving towards more independence and even statehood.
In Belgium the age old conflict between Dutch speaking Flanders and French Wallonie recently saw a 500 + day stand off involving Flemish Nationalists and their reluctance to continue subsidizing the poorer south of the country.
Even an old, well established, strongly centralized, homogenous and small country like the Netherlands knows certain tensions, both in the south, Limburg and in the North, Friesland, where strong regional cultural traditions, including local languages and dialiects are cherished. Both Friesland and Limburg resent the Hague and its focus on the ‘Randstad’, the massive 6 million agglomeration that is the west of Holland and the centre of the country.
Another example is Eastern Europe, which saw strong devolution and decentralization in the aftermath of 1989. Many ex-Soviet republics have reintroduced their own currencies, quite against the European trend.
Of course, Russian Imperialism is on the increase again, so new supranational initiatives are the order of the day.
But that just confirms the ancient conflict between Imperial power centralization against the will of the people to be left in peace.
Yugoslavia is yet another case in point. It basically was greater Serbia, a result of Austria Hungary’s demise in the first World War. Nowadays its territory sees seven different states and five currencies.
In 2006 the European Union suffered a death blow when France and the Netherlands, two key founding members voted 60/40 against Eurocratic proposals for a European Constitution and proto statehood.
They never dared asking again, while their usual modus operandi is to continue asking until they get a ‘yes’. But they simply ignored it and went ahead with Lisbon anyway.
The European ‘ideal’ never was. It always was a banker operation. It goes back all the way to the Napoleonic wars. They were already scheming for European integration at the Vienna Congress, but Alexander of Russia stopped it.
This was one of the key issues that dominated the 19th century stand off between Russia and Britain, including the Czar’s intervention in the US Civil War.
The 19th century was known as the ‘Age of Rothschild’, but this fact has been erased from human consciousness. As a result we missed that the 20th century was the second century of the Age of Rotschild.
The First World War was created to demoralize the European countries, to destroy their economies, to bind them to debt and to strike a profound fear in their hearts. Its main aim was the destruction of German nationalism, which would have been a major obstacle to World Government.
The First World War’s aftermath saw the League of Nations, which was the banker’s ‘solution’ to the ‘problem’ of war. It was a failed attempt, as they failed to enlist the USA.
But the First World War was basically a draw and a Second one was necessary to settle the score. And to convince the world, including the US, that more ‘cooperation’ was necessary.
Germany was emasculated after this war, it never recovered and will never be a leading nation again. It is of course still the Primus inter Pares in Europe, but its strength equaled British and French power and rivaled that of America in 1914. This was when Britain was still a world power in terms of industrial production. This is no longer the case and never again will be.
But the fear is waning. Europe’s people are not willing to centralize more power in Brussels. If anything, the Credit Crunch has dealt a massive blow to an already waning Eurocratic credibility.
At the same time national elites also suffer from declining respect and legitimacy. They are being caught red handed in the act of surrendering ever more power, squirming and lying all the way to Brussels. Trillions have been wasted to satisfy power and wealth crazed bankers.
What we are witnessing is a disintegration of authority. It is happening everywhere. All over the world, on all levels of society.
It is a hopeful trend.
The main question now is, whether it will be strong enough to allow the masses to stop their berzerk ‘elites’ to create one final cataclysm aimed at at last destroying the human will to live and prosper.
Because there can be little doubt that such a catastrophe is in the making.
US adventurism in the Middle East is the Money Power’s attempt to create it. And the US is today’s Germany: the main target.
Who would be left standing after the US, the EU, China and Russia lock horns in battle?
The Money Power needs this war.
It is not clear it will achieve its aims with it.
But it is clear we need to prevent it.
In our our series analyzing different monetary systems, we continue in Germany, where dozens of privately operated Regional Currencies circulate. The most important one is the Chiemgauer, turning over more than 5 million per year and growing at a rate of 100% per annum. It circulates in Rosenheim, Southern Germany, only 30 miles away from Wörgl, where Mayor Unterguggenberger launched his legendary ‘Freigeld’ experiment almost 80 years ago.
The Regio Geld movement began after the introduction of the Euro. A reaction to the loss of the D-Mark that had served Germany relatively well since the Second World War. Germany enjoys an elevated awareness of monetary matters as a result of the horrible lessons of first the Weimar hyperinflation, then the excruciating deflation of the Great Depression, followed by Hitler’s interest-free economy.
The basic rationale for the German regional currencies is to combat capital scarcity and capital costs.
Let’s first analyze the Chiemgauer’s monetary architecture, and then see how it helps to alleviate these problems.
The Chiemgauer’s design
1 Chiemgauer = 1 Euro. Participants must accept Chiemgauer at this value. Basically this means that the Chiemgauer uses the Euro’s Unit of Account function. This is practical, because it avoids daily changing prices in Chiemgauer and allows price transparency for its users. Most ‘complementary currencies’, currencies circulating beside a dominant national unit, operate in this way.
The downside is also clear: it imports Euro’s rising prices and leaves it vulnerable to Euro’s instability. However, these risks should not be overestimated: another unit of account can be used if Euro’s problems become acute.
The Chiemgauer is a Euro backed unit and convertible to Euro. Firms and consumers can buy a Chiemgauer for 1 Euro of which 3 cents go to a local charity of the consumer’s choice. This is the basic incentive for individuals to pay with Chiemgauer instead of Euro. A further 2 cents are for the issuing organization to cover its costs.
When a firm wants to convert a Chiemgauer back into Euro, it receives 95 cents. This is to motivate local firms to pay their suppliers with Chiemgauer, and thus keep the money in the local economy.
Chiemgauer uses a demurrage: basically a tax on holding money. A Chiemgauer expires every three months. The one
Rosenheim Alps, home of the Chiemgauer
holding the note when it expires must pay 2% of the nominal value of the note to reactivate it. This is Silvio Gesell’s invention and it was also the secret of the Wörgl. By diminishing the ‘store of value’ function in this way, its ‘means of exchange’ function is enhanced. As a result the Chiemgauer circulates about 2,5 times faster than Euro, meaning less money is required to finance the same economic activity.
Chiemgauer history and development
Christian Gelleri, an economics teacher, created the Chiemgauer with his students in 2003. It faced a difficult start, with only a handful of firms willing to join the experiment. But it quickly gained traction.
Chiemgauer is now accepted by over 600 businesses in the Rosenheim district, with about 500.000 inhabitants. It turns over more than 5 million Chiemgauer per year. Although this is only 0,2% of Rosenheim’s economy, the Chiemgauer’s turnover is growing at a whopping 100% per year. This means it will take only a few more years before it will become a major asset to the local economy.
Gelleri is not shy in his ambitions: he expects the Chiemgauer to eventually finance about 50% of the regional economy.
More is impossible, because taxation and international trade will continue to rely on euro.
But it is clear that when this ambition materializes, it will raise many eyebrows and would imply a major assault on the Money Power’s currency monopoly.
Gelleri has managed to provide the Chiemgauer with a solid footing in the community. By engaging local charities, who have a clear incentive to work with the Chiemgauer because of the 3% they get when people buy it, he has created a strong network of organizations promoting his unit.
He has also managed to enlist a local bank, the anthroposophical GLS bank. Germany has a relatively decentralized banking system, where ‘Landes Banken’ have close relations with small and medium sized businesses. This is one of the key factors behind Germany’s post war economic success.
The cooperation with GLS bank is important, because Euro backed and convertible units are only legal when they are restricted to paper notes. To allow bank accounts for the currency, a banking license is required.
And to challenge Euro in the business world without a solid system of bank accounts is unthinkable in this era of internet and automated adminstration.
Added value
So why is the Chiemgauer important? In the first place it is another clear example of a privately operated currency, without State backing. It proves a means of exchange can be completely paper based without State coercion. Money is anything that is agreed upon as a means of exchange. No coercion is necessary if the paper adds value for market players.
Regional Currencies are important. If anything, the Euro crisis has made clear that monopoly currencies circulating in vast area’s like Europe, but also the United States, leads to imbalances between more and less competitive regions.
The less competitive regions have a negative balance of payments, resulting in deflationary pressures in the local economy.
Chiemgauer cannot be used outside the Rosenheim region and thus stops the leaking away of capital. It alleviates the pressures of capital scarcity and makes the region less vulnerable to international instability.
Chiemgauer also addresses cost for capital: because it circulates 2,5 times quicker, the same amount of economic activity can be realized with only 40% of the money, implying 60% lower cost for capital (interest) for the community.
Limitations
The Chiemgauer’s key limitation is that it cannot provide interest-free credit. It is a Euro backed unit, not Mutual Credit.
Chiemgauer does offer credit, which is a breakthrough in itself and quite uncommon for the time being, but it is priced at 7% per year.
However, this limitation is partly offset by it’s much faster circulation.
Conclusion
The Chiemgauer is a great success. One can survive for months on end in Rosenheim without spending one Euro. It leads the way for Regional Currencies worldwide. It proves that dedicated people can create cheap and abundant capital, notwithstanding annoying legal limitations.
Chiemgauer is a wonderful inspiration in humanity’s struggle against the Money Power.
Chiemgauer in the MSM:
The Guardian December 2011
The Telegraph January 2007
The American Berkshares are fully comparable to Chiemgauer
Related:
Ellen Brown’s Public Banking
How about the Lectro?
Bitcoin, a positive step in Monetary Reform
The Goal of Monetary Reform
Ellen Brown is famous for her brilliant book ‘Web of Debt’. But she has not stopped there. Her Public Banking initiative is a direct assault on the Money Power’s control of the money supply. Her approach is fully in the Populist spirit and although it does not solve all problems, it is eminently practical and ready for immediate implementation.
The idea couldn’t be more simple: American States and Counties can open banks for themselves, capitalize them with taxpayer money and finance both the State and businesses with interest free (or low interest rate) credit. This saves them massive amounts of interest. It also secures both Government and the Commonwealth of continued financing, making them independent from unstable and often unwilling international financial markets. The little interest that is raked in by Public Banks is used to finance the bank’s operations and thus it is spent directly back into the community. In this way there is no drain of purchasing power for the community, which is a major problem in our current system.
Clearly, society’s independence from punitive monopoly interest rates by the International (Central) Banking Cartel is a great boon to society.
Credit is the modern way of creating money. Interest free credit is superior to debt free money in many respects. It is easier to take out of circulation, because the debt will be payed off. Credit can be given out several times, debt free money just keeps on circulating. A flexible money supply is in many ways attractive.
The key point to understand is, that the problem is not debt, it’s interest.
So Public Banking addresses both interest slavery and lack of access to capital. To boot, it decentralizes power from tightly controlled international financial power to local government, which is much closer to the population.
Another major advantage is that its main points are easy to communicate because they fully fit within existing paradigms. It can be immediately implemented by any State, which is especially important in this time of crisis.
Of course there are limitations too. But that is only natural and unavoidable considering the vast scope of such a thing as a monetary system.
Public Banking does not address the insanity of Fractional Reserve Banking. It does solve the Interest issue associated with it and that is of course by far the most important thing. But FRB is a very inefficient, expensive, unstable and fundamentally unsound way of creating credit. Eventually it will have to go.
Another issue is that there is a risk that Governments would abuse easily available credit, creating inflationary pressures. It must be said though, that an interest bearing money supply like we have today is inherently inflationary, because not only the principal, but also the interest to payed must be created. Otherwise people would have to go bust, because there is not enough money to pay off all the debt + the interest.
This is a key reason that our monetary system is so unstable: because the debt must grow eternally, the interest payed over it must also become more and more. This is why we must have economic growth, or face declining income. But it is easy to see it is unsustainable: the exponential growth can go only so far before the numbers become astronomical.
These pressures would not be a part of Public Banking so risk of inflation is limited.
All in all Public Banking is an amazingly powerful concept. It clearly decentralizes financial power to local and regional communities. It eats away at the horrible interest drain to the Plutocracy. It prevents deflation and the turmoil associated with that criminal enterprise.
It is available now to communities everywhere in the United States and all it needs is the support of the people to implement this wonderful scheme.
More information on the Public Banking Institute
Real Currencies on Currencies
How about the Lectro?
Bitcoin, a positive step in monetary reform
In an ongoing debate the Daily Bell rehashes the ‘free market’ version of the Gold Standard and defense of the indefensible: deflation. In these matters another problem of Austrian Economics comes to light: too much reliance on deduction, blinding them to the obvious practical issues.
Since I seem to be so preoccupied with currency and, unfortunately, Gold, people sometimes ask me how to preserve their wealth in this ongoing onslaught by the Money Power. But the fact is I’m broke, so I’m not the one to ask.
If you want to know about health, never ask somebody who does not look healthy. That’s the best advice concerning this important matter I ever heard and I’m quite positive it is the same with all serious matters.
When I started to wake up to the ways of this world in the aftermath of 9/11 I was an ICT professional working for a Government agency in the Netherlands. A ‘good’ job, the more so since I dropped out of school at 16, without even so much as a High School diploma.
At the time, I had already gone through a period of psychological and spiritual healing after a painful childhood and a very difficult adolescence. I’ve always felt that this healing was conditional for my sudden awakening from the Matrix.
When I started to realize what Banking is and that we are all Interest Slaves, I quit my job and took a sabbatical. After that I did a few free lance jobs, making € 60,000 per year after taxes. That was nice, I was swimming in cash and far less dependent on silly bosses and bureaucracy’s antics. But I was still working for Capital which was taking most of the added value of my work. It did nothing to end interest slavery. It did nothing to stop or even slightly hinder the Money Power.
So I had to make a choice. And the choice I was contemplating was to continue these lucrative jobs and save enough to buy a few kilos of Gold. Or to abandon the idea of personal prosperity and start an Interest Free Money initiative.
I chose the latter. Because of Jesus’ simple words:
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31“Therefore do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?’ or “What shall we drink?’ or “What shall we wear?’ 32For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
No, Jesus does not seem to have a very high regard for the preservation of wealth and although I don’t care about priests or mullah’s, I’m very interested in what the ancient Scriptures, from all over the world, have to say.
“Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”
I’m a man of simple logic and to my mind it’s very, very difficult to argue with these words.
There is no doubt in my mind that the Adversary has his own designs when plugging Gold as he clearly is doing now. Ron Paul had this to say on the matter:
“One objective might be to aim for every American to become a gold owner. We must encourage a broader base of political support for gold ownership…..”
Quite typical of our Masters and their manufacturing of consent.
Since I have no wealth to preserve I’ve withstood the temptation to buy some Silver, which is the metal I would chose would I want to speculate a little.
The danger is, I’d start hoping things would go wrong. It would diminish my capacity for resistance, because I would feel comfortable. I’d sink thousands of euros in dead Silver, rotting in my basement, while other activities need the investment.
I do recommend people who do own assets to put 10 to 20% of their assets in metal. In that case they’d be saved from the paper implosion that will continue. Without getting richer from the catastrophe. It’s not advisable to profit from other people’s pain. It brings certain karmic problems.
But I hate the idea of my loved ones being robbed by Banks and their owners, only because they’re a little naive. But even then I’m not sure I’m doing the right thing. It might be more beneficial for them to be rudely awakened than financially secure.
Very few have actually taken the advice anyway. They don’t care and there is a lot to be said for that.
My net asset position is probably about – €20,000. I only own a piano, a few hundred books, an electric scooter and a computer. Pretty grim for a 39 year old, wouldn’t you say?
Since 2003 I married and women are not happy with a poor man. They are brainwashed to expect comfort and luxury from marriage. ‘Security’. So are most people and I’m quite sure most people who know me wonder what the hell I might be up to. They like me and according to my wife they’re sometimes fascinated by the question what drives me, as it seems to be quite alien to them.
It’s not always pleasant. It is easier and more macho to be generous in the pub as I always used to be.
But I’ve been incredibly blessed during that period. Very kind and generous people have supported me and my work with gifts and loans with very soft conditions. At some point, when the financial black hole became seemingly untenable and I really started to lose it because of the stress of clamoring creditors, all of the sudden I get a €11,000 tax rebate. Totally unexpected.
I often think of that scene in an Indiana Jones movie, where Ford is just about to get to the Holy Grail. But he’s facing a great divide, a canyon, and he must get across. There is no bridge, no rope, nothing. But Indiana Jones remembers the prophesies, just in time, imploring to make a leap of faith. He steps into the canyon and when he does a bridge materializes under his feet, allowing him safe passage.
I believe that this is the key to walking with the One.
This is not a recommendation and it is certainly not for the fainthearted. I don’t like talking about it, because I fear it would damage the magic or suggest I have anything to do with it.
It’s just an explanation why I don’t feel I’m in the position to recommend any wealth preservation strategies.
This article also appeared at Henry Makow’s website.
Related:
What has been in the cards for decades is now fully on the agenda: the returning Gold Standard. Gold as currency is a weapon. It is a wealth transfer to those holding Gold and will precipitate a massive deflation. The ensuing chaos will help usher in their coveted New World Order and World Currency.
This article was written for Henry Makow
The number of stories pertaining Gold as currency has seen a major peak recently. This week alone it was reported that India will pay Iran in Gold for their oil imports. In another development, China, Japan, Russia, France and a number of Arab states will pay each other with a basket of currencies, including Gold.
Yet another story was Robert Zoellick, who has been promoting a Gold Standard for years, ‘admitting’ the demise of the dollar reflects ‘a changing balance of power’ in the world.
These stories are framed as resistance against the dollar hegemony and of course that is a part of the story. Another dialectic, US against the Rest of the World.
But were these Nations really acting independently, they would barter amongst each other, based on current account bookkeeping and basically crossing off all mutually outstanding debt. That would save them massive sums of currency and associated capital costs. They would need ‘hard currency’ only to settle negative balances.
Of course, when these developments run their course it could have a devastating effect on the dollar, as it would mean trillions of dollars would be repatriated from overseas as they are no longer used to finance international trade.
It helps the Money Power in her plan to bring the US down a few notches, indispensable in her drive to World Government.
But the loss of the importance of the dollar is only part of the story. Because the dollar is only the current vehicle the Money Power uses to rule international finance. It doesn’t care for the vehicle itself, as long as it has a suitable successor.
And in the US itself there also is a strong drive towards Gold as currency. The onslaught by Austrian Economics in the Alternative Media comes to mind. And Ron Paul of course. He openly calls for Gold as currency. In this respect he clearly is the ultimate internationalist candidate. This contrasts sharply with his patriotic ‘constitutionalism’. But when he must chose between constitution and the monetary, it is clear what his priorities are. Ron Paul lies about ‘contitutional money‘, saying the constitution says we should have Gold (and/or Silver) as currency. But it doesn’t, it says we may have Gold as currency. But other units are also allowed.
This ‘little detail’ is really very telling. It is typical of Money Power change agents. They hide behind a sympathetic and credible theme, meanwhile actively supporting the implementation of a worse and more important agenda.
And control of the money supply is all important. To the Money Power, anyway.
It also reminds us of how internationally the Money Power operates. We must not allow our national priorities to obscure the international context.
Austerity and Deflation
A Gold Standard would be an unmitigated disaster. It will lead to an excruciating deflation. Deflation is a horror for debtors, who see their debts and the interest they pay over them grow worse in real terms. And since everybody is complaining of debt so much, we might reconsider making it worse with deflation.
Winston Churchill, who was involved in the reinstatement of the Gold Standard in Britain in the twenties testified to the House of Commons in 1935, when the deflation of the Great Depression had made Gold untenable:
“Look at the enormously increased volume of commodities which have to be created in order to pay off the same mortgage debt or loan. Minor fluctuation might well be ignored, but I say quite seriously that this monetary convulsion has now reached a pitch where I am persuaded that the producers of new wealth will not tolerate indefinitely so hideous an oppression. . . . I therefore point to this evil, and to the search for the method’s of remedying it as the first, second and third of all the problems which should command and rivet our thoughts.”
Deflation destroys the economy, because people have an incentive to hoard cash, instead of using it for production and consumption.
The Banking Fraternity is well aware of the disastrous deflation that Gold promotes. For instance, the Protocols say in their financial program (Protocol 20): ‘You are aware that the gold standard has been the ruin of the States which adopted it, for it has not been able to satisfy the demands for money, the more so that we have removed gold from circulation as far as possible.‘
This quote also confirms that they are able, willing and known to withhold vast amounts of Gold from the market. So the idea that Gold is a safe bet because ‘it cannot be printed’ does not stand: the volume can be manipulated, because most of it is in the hand of the Money Power, who can inflate and deflate at will.
The social and economic havoc it created through the Great Depression led to the rise of fascism. It is quite likely that weaponized Gold is being used for similar purposes this time.
And of course we should also consider the one off wealth transfer that reinstating Gold as currency brings: it’s price would have to go up maybe 10 or 20 fold to replace all the fiat currency in the world. The 99% having no Gold will as usually be holding the bag.
Conclusion
Far from a ‘solution’, the coming Gold Standard is the logical next step in the Money Power plan of destabilization and order out of chaos. We will have a long and painful depression and although it is not certain that Gold will completely replace paper, it is obvious that we will know scarce money and contraction for years to come. The austerity and deflation that the Money Power’s agents in the IMF, Bank of International Settlements and (Central) Banks are promoting will set the stage for major upheaval and the usual problem-reaction-solution, dialectically driven march to World Government.
Our answer must be to have the Government reclaim the monopoly it has surrendered to a private Central Banking Cartel. But the goal is not to ‘end the Fed’. The goal is better money.
Government must print debt free money, preferably Social Credit. Since this is not going to happen any time soon, we should build free market currencies, which can actively compete with national currencies. Ellen Brown’s Public Banking is another approach in the Populist spirit.
And we should take our money out the banks of course. Why would we patronize a business that is enslaving us with credit by bookkeeping, slapping interest on it, creating booms and busts and trillions worth of bail outs?
I’m reposting this article because of the continuing momentum in discussing the Gold Standard, AM
Read more:
Top Ten Lies and Mistakes of Austrian Economics
the Ron Paul Challenge: 10 Reasons why the Alternative Media is failing this Test
Austrian Economics still is ‘Jewish’ Economics
And here’s an interesting article at the Daily Kos
The latest news is that Newt Gingrich is now also plugging Gold as currency.
People doing some independent thinking on currency often at some point come up with the idea of using energy as backing. It is easy to see why: energy is probably our most important resource and intuitively it seems attractive to use it as currency. But does it serve the goals of Monetary Reform?
In the face of Austrian Economics’ ongoing onslaught through Ron Paul, the Mises Institute and Gold Dealers parading as the ‘Alternative Media’, we present the next installment in our series of articles exposing it for what it really is: just another Banker Mind Control Operation.
1. Bankers hate Gold
Nowadays everybody knows that the 19th century was called ‘the Age of Rothschild’. They controlled the Gold Market and became incredibly rich by lending the stuff to Governments.
The Money Power came to power through Gold.
They love it because it is deflationary, they can tax it with interest, they can create the boom/bust cycle with it and they control it completely.
Clearly Bankers don’t hate gold. Europe was on a Gold Standard for the entire 19th century and left it only in the thirties, due to the horrible deflation that was the Great Depression. Populists at the time finally managed to force their Governments to get rid of it. They had been warning about its deflationary tendencies for ever.
Gold is de facto World Currency.
Ron Paul: “Commodity money if voluntarily and universally accepted could give us a single world currency requiring no money managers, no manipulators orchestrating a man-made business cycle with rampant price inflation.” — Ron Paul, Congressional Record, March 13, 2001
In older days Austrian Economists would say Governments hate the Gold Standard. Alan Greenspan, one of the more famous Austrian Gold loving Bankers, wrote in 1966: “An almost hysterical antagonism toward the gold standard is one issue which unites statists of all persuasions.“
Government, of course, is Austrian Economics’s classic enemy, but the adversary du jour in the ‘Truth Movement’ are the Bankers. So to sell something we say Bankers hate it.
They did face the little problem that the American Populists would be very hard to convince of this. Not in the least because of the book ‘Secrets of the Federal Reserve’ by Eustace Mullins, who famously described who owns the FED and how it came about. Mullins of course was quite explicit in his analysis of Gold as the Banker’s favorite currency.
But Ed Griffin solved this for them. He wrote an even more famous book: ‘the Creature from Jekyll Island’. This is basically a rip off of Mullins’s book, with one difference: it proposes a Gold Standard to get rid of the FED.
In this way Griffin obscured the truth for millions of people, who assumed he was basically saying the same thing as Mullins.
2. Government is the main problem
This is the red herring that Austrian Economics is famous for. Just like the mainstream it completely ignores the Money Power.
Austrian Economics is also incredibly ‘naive’ when it comes to private interests controlling markets. Austrian Economics will always explain Governments shouldn’t mess with the economy, while ignoring the monopolistic inclination of Capital.
As a result Austrian Economics is the wet dream of the Trillionaires, as they will resist any Government action against them and their Transnationals.
Austrian Economics will actually blame Government for the fact that markets now are controlled by Transnational Cartels. Why they don’t seem to consider the shareholders and controllers responsible remains an open question.
To be fair, the analysis of Austrian Economics about the negative implications of many regulations is spot on and very enlightening.
However, to ignore the power struggle that is inevitable both in the market in and politics, is so naive and pleasant to the powerful that it is almost impossible to fathom how somebody else could have thought it up than these powerful interests themselves.
The fact is, that Governments all over the world have been subverted by private interests. And these private interests are quite homogenous. This international centralization of power, concentrated around extremely rich banking families, the Money Power, is the problem.
Government is a neutral institution, associated with a Nation. Public Opinion can always force its hand.
But when both Government itself AND Public Opinion are captive to the Money Power, Government will become quite unpleasant.
Soon, it will be obsolete, as it surrenders its sovereignty to World Government and World Currency. Governments and certainly Nations will never voluntarily surrender sovereignty.
These projects clearly belong to the Money Power.
3. Manipulation of the Volume of the Money Supply is the main problem with our money
Another red herring: manipulation of Volume is certainly quite a scourge. But it ignores an even bigger problem: Interest.
The Government currently pays 700 billion per year in debt service for the National Debt.
It matters not whether she pays this for Gold or for paper.
We currently pay $150.000 dollars in interest over thirty years for a $100.000 mortgage. Most of this mortgage was created by simple bookkeeping the moment we borrowed it.
45% of prices we pay for our daily needs are compensation for capital costs incurred by the producer.
We are Interest Slaves.
But if we can have credit by bookkeeping, clearly we should get the money interest free, because it is our credit, not the bank’s.
4. Gold guarantees a steady volume
This another very strange supposition. After all, the Gold Standards of the past saw horrible asset bubbles.
The boom/bust cycle has nothing to do with the currency, but whether the money supply is being manipulated.
The idea that Gold cannot be printed and that that give security about the volume is nonsense. Bankers routinely have withheld vast quantities of specie from circulation, only to inflate at a later stage again.
5. Inflation is bad
It is certainly true that inflation knows problems.
Inflation hurts savers, creditors and people on pinned incomes. But it is pleasant for debtors, of which there are far more than creditors. And, very important, inflation is associated with economic growth. People stop hoarding cash and rather invest and spend.
The one sided focus of Austrianism on inflation, while actually promoting the horror of deflation (see next) makes it look like they’re demonizing inflation in order to make deflation more palatable.
6. Deflation is good
This statement is so incredibly favorable for the ultra rich, who are basically the only ones who benefit from deflation, that it puts Austrian Economics in a very bad light.
Austrians clearly promote the Deflation vs. Inflation dialectic, with all its nefarious implications.
Deflation hurts debtors. It makes their debts and the interest they pay over it worth more.
Deflation is a wealth transfer from those holding assets to those holding cash.
Deflation destroys economic growth because people rather hold cash than invest or spend it.
As a result, Deflation on all fronts makes the rich richer and the poor poorer.
7. We don’t want a Gold Standard, we want a Free Market for Currencies
This is such nonsense.There are two major reasons why it is.
1. In fact, the idea of a Currency Free Market is quite attractive. In the case that all different systems would receive the same funding and propaganda, such a market would undoubtedly see Mutual Credit Facilities providing interest-free credit prevail, see below.
However, only Gold and perhaps Silver, but not if they can avoid it, will receive all the attention and funding. In fact, Mutual Credit will be resisted actively by the Money Power.
This will not be hindered Government, who just by decree created this new ‘Free Market’, because that would be ‘statist interference’
Thus, only Gold will circulate.
2. Would there be a ‘free market’, there is Gresham’s Law. Bad money drives out good money.
It means that the units appreciating in value will be hoarded, while those depreciating will be used to pay.
Everybody will accept the depreciating unit (as long as it is not hyper inflating), because most will want to pay with it and firms will have to accept them to accommodate their customers. They won’t have a problem with that anyway. Firms don’t care what the money will be worth in a year. They want to know where they can spend it tomorrow.
This means nothing will happen if Ron Paul’s proposal to make Gold and Silver also legal tender is accepted. People will continue to pay with the Fed’s notes and hoard Gold.
Also, if you can get a Gold based mortgage costing 5% per year, or a 0% mortgage in Mutual Credit, which would you chose?
Case closed.
8. Austrian Economics is hated by the Main Stream Media
While it is true that Austrian Economics is a fringe, also in terms of Media Attention, it always has maintained a steady niche. It is not for nothing that Peter Schiff and Gerald Celente were predicting the crash in the MSM.
Lately, Ed Griffin was plugged by Glenn Beck on prime time T.V.
Judge Napolitano gets all the airtime he wants on Fox News, spouting his Austrianism. Amazingly, the fact that even Fox News will plug Austrianism does not ring a bell with people.
9. Fiat Currencies are always bad
Another typical device: a dialectic. Trying to frame it as Paper vs. Gold. Both ignoring interest.
But interest-free paper is of course something else entirely. At least it won’t suffer from the forced inflation on interest-bearing money supplies. Because the interest is not spent back into circulation, but lent back, there is never enough to pay off all the debt + interest. During a Gold Standard this is deflationary, because the money supply can’t grow. With paper, this is ‘solved’ by ever more debt. With ever more interest.
Modern Mutual Credit is inflation free. Or better: the market is in control of the money supply. It grows when it must, shrinks when it must.
Social Credit is probably inflationary, but everybody will be fully compensated for it because of the fact that they spend the inflationary cash into circulation themselves. Meanwhile, the inflation will stimulate production.
They are trying to promote the idea that Fiat Currencies are automatically bad ‘because the volume will be manipulated’.
This is the eternal clincher, killing all rational debate about how to manage all the different parameters in the different proposals.
10. The problem is the FED
The FED is a symptom, not the problem. The problem is that the Money Supply is controlled by the Money Power, which uses this control to enslave us with interest, scarce money and the boom/bust cycle.
The FED is their vehicle. We want to get rid of it, because we want to end the control of the Money Supply by the Money Power. It’s not a goal in itself.
Austrians use this to ‘fight the FED’ and gain sympathy and support, meanwhile maintaining the control of the Money Supply with the Plutocracy.
Related:
Recovering Austrians
Who is Ed Griffin?
The Ron Paul Challenge: Ten Reasons why the Alternative Media is Failing this Test
Alex Jones joins Alan Greenspan in Calling for Gold Standard
The ‘Alternative Media’ is dominated by Austrianism and Gold outlets masquerading as ‘independent’. Real criticism of Austrianism is not allowed and ‘avoided as internecine strife’, while Austrianism’s own attack dogs like Gary North and Peter Schiff are given free reign to suppress Interest-Free Economics.
Recovering Austrians syndicates serious criticism of Austrian Economics and gives the classic Populist vision on money a platform.
It will all have to be developed over time, but is is already becoming a good resource for people seeking truth about money.
Please support the effort and spread the word. Tips for content are also much welcome: classics against Gold, Usury, good articles.
Have a look at Recovering Austrians!
Hate the State, buy Gold and all will be well: an Alternative Media in Crisis
A little more then ten years after the Truth Movement was born, its key asset, the Alternative Media, is dying. Austrianism, ego and over reliance on too few news aggregators have allowed the Money Power to stall the opposition.
A little more than a year ago Activist Post compiled a widely read Top Ten of the Most Influential People in the Alternative Media. Let’s analyze this list and see what kind of ‘opposition’ can be expected from these people.
10. Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
Activist Post: “Roberts scores huge points in the credibility department having been the former head of policy at the Department of Treasury under Reagan, and the editor of the Wall Street Journal…’
Do these posts really add to his credibility? This is actually quite typical of the Alternative Media. ‘Ex’ CIA officers are also often quoted as ‘reliable’ sources.
Roberts seems a decent man. But he ignores the monetary system. He backs Ron Paul. He in no way challenges the basic tenets of Capitalism.
So he provides no real opposition of any kind to the Money Power.
9. Gary Franchi
A libertarian plugging Gold.
8. Adam Kokesh
A veteran with his own TV show on Russia Today. He is a libertarian with great faith in ‘commodity money’. According to Activist post, he gets his legitimacy from having served in the greatest killing machine ever to scorch this earth.
7. Stefan Molyneux
One word: Hate the State!
6. Max Keiser
Max is more complicated character than most of the other rather primitive ‘Libertarians’ on this list. He calls the bankers by their real names, anything from vampire, to criminals belonging in jail. That certainly is refreshing. He also has an interest in other monetary paradigms and is not so hung up on Gold, even though he plugs it big time.
On the other hand: he actually seems to believe Germany is the good guy in the Euro crisis and he does not seem to fully grasp the simple power grab that is behind the Euro Crisis.
5. David Icke
While having some problems of his own, David Icke’s message to OWS shows he’s the real deal. In the video he promotes 3 basic issues: the end to power centralization in supra national entities, monetary reform aimed at debt free money printing by the State and the Problem-Reaction-Solution. The last is tactical in nature, but the first two points are fully on target.
Why a man of his knowledge has so much difficulty seeing the difference between Christ and Christianity is difficult to understand and his ‘reptilians’ are also hard to swallow. But his analysis of the basic condition of mankind is spot on and has nothing to do with the libertarian nonsense that most on this list plug.
4. Jeff Rense
Rense is in many respects a real populist. But he is compromised. He does not fall for Austrianism, but still plugs Gold big time on his website and only very sparingly allows interest free reformers.
Rense apperantly makes hundreds of thousands per year from advertisements and Gold dealers are among his main clients.
He is hailed as the leading outlet on Fukushima, but his recent spat with Henry Makow gave rise to serious doubts.
We are, according to Jeff Rense, to believe that Fukushima was an accident with nobody to blame but the Nuclear Energy Industry. All alternative views are just psy-ops to take the heat of Nuclear Energy. This leaves the impression of a gatekeeping operation.
(update 2/15/2012: Henry Makow exposes Rense)
3. Lew Rockwell
Rothbard’s buddy and boss of the von Mises institute which, up to 2007, owned millions in US treasuries while receiving massive Government subsidies.
As a real libertarian hating politics and the State, Rockwell is always busy getting his friend Ron Paul elected to use state power to fulfill his dreams.
2. Mike Adams
Few problems here, although he is way too high up the list.
Adams has done useful work in the non-threatening but not unimportant natural health department. He is a stand in for Alex Jones in his show.
1. Alex Jones
Of course, nobody takes Jones very seriously, neither outside the alternative media, where he is considered a ‘conspiracy theorist’, nor in the Alternative Media, where everybody knows he is a bought and payed for gatekeeper, making a fortune with his massive media empire. Jones, like most on this list, is a libertarian and plugs the Gold Standard.
Update 3/6/2012: Alex Jones is over. David Chase Taylor has executed him. All that is left is a smoldering ruins and the question how Alex Jones’s endgame will actually play out.
Interestingly, in his Top Ten of Alex Jones mistakes he doesn’t mention his monetary credentials.
Special mention: Ed Griffin!
Well, readers of this site know all about Ed Griffin. Don’t miss Franz Seiler’s comment at the offered link!
Griffin is a mind controller who rewrote Eustace Mullins’ ‘Secrets of the Federal Reserve’ to erase from the public’s mind the knowledge of Gold as the Banker’s favorite monetary weapon.
He recently, like Alex Jones, started ‘exposing’ chemtrails. Undoubtedly to minimize the egg on their faces for having ignored it since 1998
Another special mention: Mike Rivero
He was not on the list, but should have been and was mentioned by many commentators. There can be little doubt that Mike is a good guy. He is a real populist working with his own research. But he does suffer from a number of annoying blind spots. His ‘hating being right all the time’ explains why: knowing you are wrong most of the time brings more growth.
Mike knows about money, but he still supports Paul. He just doesn’t understand that control of the Money Supply is all important. He misses out on the fact that Paul is an obvious change agent, because he believes Paul’s Gold Standard is just one of the issues, instead of THE issue.
Other big mistakes were his denial of chemtrails and downplaying the Obama birther issue, which he thought was irrelevant.
Conclusion
No less than six of the names on this list are outright libertarians.
Libertarianism is attractive to Americans as it promotes ‘Liberty’ and ‘Freedom’. Lovely labels, well suited for the American market, which is less enthralled by our Master’s usual ‘Equality’ and ‘Brotherhood’.
But just as ‘some are more equal than others’, ‘some will be more free than others’ when the Libertarians get their way.
Their Gold Standard (nowadays packaged as a ‘free market for currencies’) will allow the bankers to do what they love most: deflate the money supply and use the ensuing chaos to construct their New Order. Not to mention the massive wealth transfer to those few holding Gold.
It’s also instructive to see how the Money Power works: it just sells a few ounces to people starting to wake up and off they are. Instead of potential opposition, they are transformed into useful drones clamoring for the ‘reform’ the Money Power wanted anyway.
The three major aggregators, Rense, Jones and Rivero all plug Paul. Opposition to Paul is not allowed on the main aggregators of the ‘Free Media’.
Only David Icke provides insight in the real issue: control of the money supply. All the rest either downplay the issue or plug a Gold Standard.
The real drama is, that many people don’t buy into this. I’ve noticed many times that many people have a far greater appreciation of monetary matters than is to be expected from the dreary level of information they receive from the ‘Alternative Media’.
They are simply not represented by the main aggregators.
It is no use speculating on who is behind all these outlets. Libertarianism and Austrianism as mind control operations provide for people seeing the light to plug the message on their own accord. They are called useful idiots.
But the fact is: the Money Power can rest assured that those searching for real information find no organization on the Internet.
And as is usual, the mind control is even reinforced with the self congratulatory kind of list as discussed here.
Related:
The Ron Paul Challenge: ten reasons the Alternative Media is failing this test
Austrian Economics still is ‘Jewish’ Economics
Phoenix Rising, the Return of the Gold Standard
Top Ten Lies and Mistakes of Austrian Economics